


Third Grade Crush

by Prentice



Category: The OC
Genre: Fluff, M/M, Pre-Slash, Secret Crush
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2014-06-07
Updated: 2014-06-07
Packaged: 2018-02-03 18:57:40
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 467
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1754659
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Prentice/pseuds/Prentice
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Having a crush was so much easier in third grade...</p>
            </blockquote>





	Third Grade Crush

For the first time ever, Seth has to admit to himself that maybe he's in over his head. Not just with his relationship with Summer but with everybody. They all expect so much from him, especially now that he's getting older and high school is soon going to be just a distant memory. It's like they all expect him to go from being Seth Cohen, proud owner of Captain Oats, to Seth Cohen, grown man.

It just isn't going to happen. Yeah, he would grow up – that’s inevitable - but that doesn’t mean he is going to be a "grown up”. There’s no denying the likelihood of him being a thirty year-old man who reads comics and can quote lines from any season of _Buffy the Vampire Slayer_. That's just who he is, who he's always been.

Nobody, save for one, seems to realize that though. Not even his mom and dad, who've known him all his life, or Summer, who he thought he was in love with since - forever, almost.

It's kind of ironic, really, that the only person who understands who he really is inside is a guy from Chino - Ryan, his best friend. His only friend, really. Ryan sees him like no one else can or has. He looks into Seth and sees the person he's supposed to be and he's okay with it. That makes Seth feel - good.

Really good. Double mocha-frappuccino good. DC comics good. Grand Theft Auto III good.

That's why he thinks that that's where this funny feeling in his stomach comes from every time he sees the blonde. Someone just has to mention his friend's name and his heart starts pumping double time and his mouth suddenly goes really dry.

It drives him crazy. _Ryan_ drives him _crazy_. Out of his freaking mind _crazy_.

From the way he always wears the same damn choker to all the tank tops he walks around in. Seth doesn't know how many more times he can take his heart lurching in his chest just from seeing the other boy walk, hips gliding from side to side, or the way he'll go around bare foot, his toes peeking out from just beneath his pants. Seth never thought toes could make his stomach twist but Ryan's - Ryan's toes make feel light head and feverish just because they're part of the blonde.

It's so third-grade, he knows, but he wishes he could just slip a note beneath Ryan's door one night, that says:

I like you.

-Seth

Maybe with a little smiley face for accent and to make sure that Ryan knows that it's this Seth and not some other Seth out there liking him. He remembers he did that way back when with Summer. God, things were always so much easier in the third grade…

**END**


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